New iPod Touch Has a Vibrator

[UPDATE: According to an iFixit teardown, the vibrator has been removed from the Touch and the corresponding page has been changed on Apple’s site]

Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he called the iPod Touch the “iPhone without a phone.” We have been calling it that for years, of course, but with each iteration the two iOS devices get closer and closer in terms of features. Now a vibrating alert has been added to the the Touch.

The first iPod Touch was a chunky slab of metal and glass, and didn’t even come with a hardware volume-control. As the product-line has evolved, Apple has added not only a volume switch but a speaker (the latest version has a proper speaker, not the tinny thing hidden in the headphone socket like last year’s model), a pair of cameras, a gyroscope and a microphone. The only the Touch now lacks are the cellular radio, the GPS and the mute-switch on the side.

The vibrator shows up as an alert for FaceTime on the iPod accessibility page:

If somebody wants to start a video call with you, you’ll receive an invitation — along with a vibrating alert — on your iPod touch asking you to join.

The obvious use though (no, not that one) is for games. Tactile feedback has been around on bigger consoles for years, and as the Touch is being pushed as a gaming device, adding in a vibrator seems like a great idea.

Which makes me wonder how long it will be before the Touch really is a phone-less iPhone. Is it possible that the next step is to add in cellular data, just like the iPad 3G, leaving out only the actual telephony hardware? That would still suit Job’s other nickname for the Touch, which is the “iPhone without a contract.” Couple that with FaceTime and who needs a cellphone anyway?